Finance Business Partner

Sizewell C’s business is to design, finance, construct, commission, operate, maintain, and eventually decommission the nuclear power plant and related infrastructure at Sizewell C in Suffolk. Overall, whilst the Company is in the construction phase, the Boards’ principal focus is on the development and construction of Sizewell C on time, on budget and to the highest quality and safety standards. The Company is maturing to meet all these requirements.

Sizewell C is economically regulated by OFGEM under the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model similar to other UK electricity distribution networks and Thames Tideway.

Sizewell C construction strategy is to replicate the design of Hinkley Point C, using the majority of the same supply chain, but innovating in the way it is delivered to achieve savings in time and cost of around 20%. The CCO will need to be guided by and incorporate lessons learned from the Hinkley Point C commercial delivery to achieve Sizewell C’s ambition.

Following Financial Completion and Revenue Commencement, Sizewell C is fully funded and is owned by; The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero representing HM Government, La Caisse, Centrica, EDF and Amber Infrastructure.

Sizewell C is entering an exciting phase of growth as we mature into an independent organisation and continue building one of the UK’s largest and most important energy projects. We are now recruiting the below position.

Finance Business Partner – Site Delivery

Location: London on a hybrid basis with periodic travel to Suffolk

Contract: Permanent, full-time.

What’s in It for You

• Salary: Competitive, depending on experience
• Bonus: 5% annual incentive
• Pension: Up to 7.5% employee / 15% employer contribution
• Leave: 28 days holiday plus bank holidays

Your Impact

The SZC Finance Business Partner – Site Delivery provides support to the SZC Head of Finance – Site Delivery to provide strong stewardship and governance of the Site Delivery programme, managing the financial performance of the programme and its alignment with stakeholders’ expectations or requirements.

The role will ensure cost control and corporate compliance within Site Operations (a sub-programme within Site Delivery). You will be the primary finance business partner to the Site Operations Leadership team ensuring that the money spent represents value for money, is in line with budget, the RAB licence and specific funding requirements.

Principal Accountabilities, Activities and Decisions

• Review and collate planning, budgeting and forecasting information focusing on challenging assumptions and decisions, ensuring quality and consistency.
• Own the monthly financial reporting cycle, including collation of data and calculation of monthly accruals, business partnering and challenging functional teams to ensure robustness and auditability of financial information.
• Exercise governance and control.
• Manage the delivery and presentation of timely, accurate and relevant management information alongside Project Controls to ensure alignment of cost and schedule.
• Ownership of the Cost Breakdown Structure of the project to enable a clean audit trail of expenditure, ensuring that all expenses and task orders are coded according to the agreed project structure.
• Challenge budget holders on financial decisions and identify opportunities for cost savings with the core mind-set of “Value for Money” and Financial Control at all times.
• Working closely with the Site Delivery PMO and Commercial teams, supporting and challenging in lifecycle cost reporting, risk/opportunity management and delivery of accurate forecast accuracy.
• Play a key role in the thorough review of governance papers for Site Operations before endorsement at Commercial Executive Committees and the Board.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience

Knowledge & Skills

• Behave in line with Finance’s guiding principles: Safe & Inclusive, Efficiency, Collaboration, Innovation and Integrity
• Excellent at building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders.
• Navigates internal politics and balances competing demands.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to use both logic and intuition to derive solutions for both finance and the business.
• Ability to consider full range of factors impacting a decision and able to compromise and negotiate, constructively challenging assumptions, business performance and plans.
• Ability to prioritise and manage activities with regular and tight deadlines.
• Takes accountability for results and delivers on commitments.
• Ability to present complex financial ideas and business ideas in writing and verbally in an appropriate way for the audience.
• Strong decision-support capability through clear and actionable insight.
• An interest in the industry / sector and have a clear understanding of external matters that affect the business entity.

Qualifications & Experience

• Qualified accountant with recognised UK Professional Organisation (e.g. ACCA, ICAEW, ICAS, CIMA).
• Strong Excel skills
• Strong commercial and / or business experience.
• Experience of managing, supporting and challenging performance and internal relationships
• Business partner experience and ability to lead finance support to the project.
• Previous experience of Project Finance in large infrastructure preferable

Technical, Finance Competencies

• Strategic Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting
• Core Accounting and Assurance Processes & Procedures, Legal & Regulatory
• Management Information Analysis and Reporting, Problem Solving & Decision Support
• Cash Management and Program Funding
• Investment & Asset Management
• Communication of Management Information & Effective Financial Reporting
• Project Management
• Process Management
• Financial Business Partnering
• Risk Analysis and Internal Control Systems
• Assurance and Audit

Behavioural Competences

Humility

• Recognise the value brought from different cultures and experiences.
• Be open to other’s points of view and ideas, be willing to debate and to compromise.

Positivity

• Positively challenge poor quality and performance.
• Identify solutions at the lowest possible level.
• Encourage others to bring new ideas forward.

Respect

• Value the rules and environment in which we operate.
• Give and receive feedback with respect.
• Embrace and engage with new people and ideas.

Solidarity

• One team, working closely together and helping each other.
• Empowered teams always looking forward.
• Shared responsibility for delivery the project outcomes.

Clarity

• Communicate clearly and consistently.
• Promote collaboration and team alignment.
• Clearer and faster decision making.
• Drive simplification at all levels.

If this sounds like the next step in your career, we’d love to hear from you. Apply today.

When joining Sizewell C, you may wonder why you are contacted by colleagues with an EDF email or see the EDF logo on portals that you access and/or documentation you receive; this is because we have partnered with EDF for the provision of a number of support services whilst we complete a successful transition out of the EDF group.

At Sizewell C we encourage and embrace diversity and how it can improve our experience and performance at work. It is a requirement that those who join us have the right to work in the UK. Whilst sponsorship may be a possibility that we can explore, we are fully committed to local recruitment where possible, and those already holding the right to work in the UK.

To be appointed to this role, you will need to meet the criteria for Security Vetting, which will, ordinarily, require you to have been a resident of the UK for at least three of the past five years.